People Who Read Harry Potter Are Better Overall Humans

The Feed

Posted on November 20, 2017
by Olivia Esveld

As if we didn't know this already, someone has performed a study into the type of people who tend to read Harry Potter books, and the results show that those who love the wizarding world are better people than those who don't.

And it's not just because we're well versed in potions and spells and are just all round cooler...no apparently reading Harry Potter has helped fight against bigotry and prejudice.

A paper published by the Journal of Applied Psychology claims that those people who read the Harry Potter novels are more open to stigmatised groups such as immigrants, homosexuals and refugees.

And when you really think about the content that Potterheads are exposed to in the books, it actually makes sense!

Throughout the seven books that follow the complicated life of Harry Potter (seriously dude, how many times can someone almost die while they're still in high school!), us readers have become accustomed to the terms 'mudblood', half-blood' and 'pure-blood'.

Now when you think about the entitlement that seems to be aligned with the pure-blood characters, meaning that they come from a family of witches and wizards, compared to the prejudice and discrimination that comes with the terms 'half-blood' and 'mudblood', these terms can be likened to racism in the real world.

When you think about the types of characters that acted in a prejudiced way by using these derogatory terms for people who weren't born into completely magical families, they are typically the evil characters.

And of course, every kid with their nose in a harry potter book found Malfoy an awful character and cringed every time he spat out the words "filthy little mudblood".

According to the study, kids that were able to read the books and identify that the characters who judged or made fun of people for being a 'mudblood' or 'half-blood' (basically because of their background) were doing the wrong thing, then they would grow up to be open-minded adults.

This type of life lesson also comes from some of the speeches from highly regarded characters in the book, such as this one from Albus Dumbledore:

"You place too much importance, and you always have done, on the so-called purity of blood! You fail to recognise that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!"

But of course, it's no surprise that bigotry is a main theme tackled throughout the novels, with the Author JK Rowling consistently speaking her mind about humanitarian topics on twitter.

Rowling also answered a fan's question on the subject last year saying,

"The expressions 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'muggle-born' have been coined by people to whom these distinctions matter and express their originators' prejudices.

"As far as somebody like Lucius Malfoy is concerned, for instance, a muggle-born [wizard] is as bad as a muggle. Therefore Harry would be considered only half-wizard because of his mother's grandparents.

"If you think this is far-fetched, look at some of the real charts the Nazis used to show what constituted 'Aryan' or 'Jewish' blood."

Of course, the study also mentions that this theory technically only works if you identify with Harry or his friends within the story. If you're more of a Draco Malfoy character or you were cheering for voldemort to win in the last book, well we don't exactly have good new for you.

But, if you've taken the time to read all of the Harry Potter books and were siding with the good guys the whole time, give yourself a pat on the back, because you're probably a better person for it.